In about a month and a half I'm looking to change my workout program to http://www.wannabebig.com/article.php?articleid=154. It basically suits my goal of trimming down for an aesthetically pleasing look. Anyone want to evaluate the program or give me some descriptions of some of the exercises that I'm not quite familiar with:

I quickly looked the program over and already can tell you it has some problems in design.

Monday – Back, Chest, and Arms

A1) Bench Press

A2) Weighted Chins

B1) Incline Dumbbell Press

B2) Weighted Dips

There are 3 pushing exercises and only 1 pulling exercise. There is far more muscle mass in the back than in the chest and since most people overdo the bench press in the first place, they could use more back exercises than chest exercises.

Wednesday - Legs, Back Extensors, Shoulders

A1) Back Squats

A2) Deadlift with shrug at top of lift

B1) Clean and Press

B2) Calf Press in the Leg Press Machine w/ a 5 sec. pause at the top of the movement

This day woudl be fine if you were planning to use light weights and to not gain strength. To gain strength, you need to rest and then you need to use more weight. If you are cycling Back Squats and Deadlift, this is going to be hard. Followed up by a clean and press, I would say this is pretty crazy. Not to mention you already worked the shoulders (with all 4 exercises) the previous workout day.

Personally, I think this kind of calf work is overrated and overrused. I see guys pumping their calves on the leg press machine all the time and for years it is the same people. Their calves never get any bigger, and they dont jump any higher. Your calves have tremendous endurance and therefore it takes a lot of weight to do anything significant to them (afterall they are being walked on all day). You need to be pushing atleast 3 times bodyweight on the 45 degree leg press to even have a chance, and even then, I dont see much happening. You would be better off doing box jumps between the cleans and press, or just the clean and press.

Furthermore, since the clean and press is a more technical lift, you should perform it first in the workout.

Friday – Shoulders, Traps, Arms

A1) Seated Arnold Press

A2) Alternating One-arm Dumbbell Shrugs w/ a 3 sec. pause at the top of the movement

B1) Preacher Curls

B2) Triceps Pushdowns

There is nothing really wrong with this day except tha tyou just blasted your traps the previous day on the clean and press and the shrugs at the top of the deadlifts.

As I only looked at the first phase, I could have missed some grand schema this guy has in mind but I doubt it coudl reconcile the problems alread existing here.

As to your questions,
Decline weight crunches are done on a decline bench (the kind you could where your torso goes below the horizontal) and you just crucnh.

Weighted Twisting raises I imagine are like leg raises normall would be but you twist at the top at the waist.

Reverse Cable Flys I will find a picture and post it here.

Power Pulls are like a Power clean but you dont rack the weight, you just pull it as high as you can to the point where you would normally go into a front squat and catch the weight on your front delts but you just pull to that point.

Hmm. To Ryan you listen. Many problems this has. Needed more pulling is. Also the split I like not. Isolation there is much. If you start down the machine and cable path forever will it dominate your desitiny. When biceps I train with proper form, most sore the brachialis is. Need preachers I do not. Little curling do I do. For my ally is proper back work, and a powerfull ally it is. If proper training you wish, basic exercises will you do.

Well, I read the 1st referenced link. OK, I'm not going to jump on it like Yoda (guest) did, but he did bring up some interesting points.The link is a split, and IMHO, you get more bang for the buck for "leaning" if you go full body. The program referenced supposedly has you going for strength, with a 5X5, and a 5X5 will definately give you strength, if you concentarte and do it right, but I don't see it contributing that much to fat loss. A version of this, done full body, with short rests, will work. I've seen it and done it. It's based on Korte's 3X3. (look it up over in the archives at Deepsquatter.com). Kortes is basically squat, DL, BP done for 5-8 sets each, 5-8 reps, starting out at 65%1RM. The first 4 weeks go up gradually.After that it slows down and becomes a strength program, but everyone I've talked to that tried it started shedding lbs when using these exercises circuit fashion with short rest breaks. Other spinoffs of this are DL, dip, chin done circuit, for 3 rounds, of 15, AMRAP, AMRAP, and squat, , press, row. Any of these will give you aesthtics when combined with a healthy diet geared to fat loss. When going for fat loss, or leaning, get the most muscle amount you can working, and you can only do that with the large muscle groups, and exercises geared towards them. At this point, forget the isolation stuff. All the back pulling movements hit the biceps, quite hard, and all the shoulder/chest stuff hits the triceps quite hard. After you lean out, then fine, go for some isolation and splitting.
Just my .02
Tim

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